This application relates to apparatuses used with flat strap (webbing), specifically apparatuses and methods of using apparatuses to secure flat strap or to secure objects using flat strap.
Devices common to industries that utilize flat straps for securing loads usually encompass two broad areas of devices; sewn-strap camlock devices and lever ratcheting devices. Sewn-strap camlock devices utilize a strap permanently attached to the device by means of a loop sewn in one end of the strap affixed through an opening in the device housing with the opposing free end locked within the device by means of an eccentrically shaped hub rotated to trap the free end of the strap between the hub and the device housing. Lever ratcheting devices also incorporate a permanently attached section of strap to the device and a second non-permanently attached strap drawn into and captured on a hub within the device by means of a ratcheting lever mechanism. Sewn-strap camlock devices are commonly used in loop configurations where the strap surrounds objects being secured, binding them together and possibly to a stationary anchor if also encompassed by the strap as the free end of the strap is drawn into and held within the device. Ratchet devices more typically are used in point-to-point configurations where objects are confined between a stationary surface and a highly tensioned strap (ratchet lever induced) spanning the distance between two anchored points securely attached to the underlying surface. Ratchet mechanisms tend to be much larger in size than the simpler camlock devices but typically can induce far more load securing tension in the strap. In both types of devices a section of strap is in one way or another permanently attached to the device and will render both types of devices unusable if that section of strap breaks or is damaged in some manner.
Additionally, with one end or one strap permanently attached to the device, the device is limited to utilizing the attached strap. As such, would limit the device in the case of a sewn strap camlock to a single length of strap and in both types of devices to a particular strap material, thickness and hence strength and durability. In most cases the load bearing limits are determined by the intrinsic load bearing capacity of the strap material utilized with the device.
Because of design and structural differences between the two styles of device, a user is either limited to the simpler, smaller, easier to use sewn-strap camlock device or to the larger, unwieldly, more complicated higher tensioning capacity ratchet device.
And in both cases, with the strap permanently attached to the device, the sewn-strap camlock and the lever ratcheting devices are themselves positionally limited in any configured load bearing arrangement. For sewn-strap camlocks the tensioning device is confined to one end of the strap. For lever ratcheting devices the length of the permanently attached section of strap determines the physical position of the ratchet device. Tensioning of the configured strap arrangement is then induced by drawing strap into the fixed location device.